zoo

Definitions

General English

noun a place where wild animals are kept, and where people can go to see them

Agriculture

prefix
(written as zoo-)
animal

Information & Library Science

noun
(written as Zoo)
a compressing archive program for transferring electronic files

Medical

prefix
(written as zoo-)
relating to animals

Origin & History of “zoo”

Greek zṓion meant ‘animal’ (it came from the Indo-European base *gwei-, which also lies behind English biology, quick, and vital). From it was formed modern Latin zōologia ‘study of animals’, which English adapted as zoology (17^th c.). Zoological was derived from this in the 19th century, and when the Zoological Society of London opened their exhibition of live wild animals in Regent’s park in 1829, they called it the Zoological Gardens. This was soon abbreviated to ‘the Zoological’, and by the mid 1840s it had shrunk further to zoo.

Nearby Definitions of “zoo”

Contexts for “zoo”

4 definitions in context

Origin & History